Best DNP Programs

Denver metro

Best DNP Programs In Denver 2026

The largest metro added to this site since Chicago, and both of its accredited institutions are private, mid-priced and taught at a distance.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Price will not narrow this list. The published in-state rates here sit inside a band of roughly 1.2 times, which is tight for a metro. That pushes the decision onto track, cohort size and who arranges the clinical placement.

  2. 2

    Every institution here is private. No public option means residency buys you nothing in this metro. A private institution charges one rate wherever you live, so an out-of-state applicant is on the same terms as a local one.

  3. 3

    Colorado Christian University is most of this metro. It conferred 20 of the 21 DNP awards recorded here, which is 95% of them, against 1 at Regis University. Treat the others as genuinely small programs rather than as alternatives of a similar size.

  4. 4

    Every measured program is distance-flagged. Which says less than it sounds: the flag covers taught content only. The supervised hours happen in person with a preceptor wherever you enroll, and campus days are the school's to set.

A Three-Million Metro Whose Whole Accredited Field Is Two Private Programs

Denver is the third-largest metropolitan area on this site and it carries two accredited DNP programs, both private nonprofit. Neither the University of Colorado nor any state institution files an accredited DNP inside this metro in the federal data, so a Colorado resident looking for a public in-state rate here will not find one on this page.

The two that are here are unusually close in price for a private pair: Colorado Christian University publishes $27,631 and Regis University $23,700. Across this site private programs commonly sit above $40,000, so both of these are cheap by the standards of their own sector, and the gap between them is under $4,000.

Output is where they part. Colorado Christian conferred 20 DNP awards in the reporting year and Regis conferred 1. Both are flagged for distance education, so the practical read is that this metro offers two remotely delivered private programs at similar prices, one of which is a going concern at doctoral level and one of which, on this single year of data, is very small.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 2 institutions on this page and to nothing else.

  1. 50%

    Published in-state graduate tuition

    Institution-level. Published annual graduate tuition, not a DNP per-credit rate and not net of aid.

  2. 35%

    Established program

    Program-level. DNP conferrals in this CIP and award level in the reporting year, saturating at 25. Above that a program scores full marks and gains nothing further for size.

  3. 15%

    Institution-wide undergraduate completion

    Institution-level and undergraduate. The IPEDS 150%-of-normal-time rate for first-time, full-time bachelor's students.

Nothing is imputed. A program that does not publish a figure is scored on the ones it does publish, with the remaining weights renormalized; below 2 published figures it is listed without a position rather than ranked on a single number. Accreditation is a condition of appearing at all, not a factor that earns points. What the rubric cannot see.

Accredited Schools In The Denver Metro, Ranked

Ordered on the same three published figures the state guides use: in-state tuition, annual conferrals and completion rate. One row per institution, not per federal filing.

# Program In-state tuition DNP awards UG completion Score of 100
1 of 2 Colorado Christian University Lakewood, CO · Private nonprofit · offered online $27,631 20 64% 50
2 of 2 Regis University Denver, CO · Private nonprofit · offered online $23,700 1 61% 50

What This Guide Counts As The Denver Metro

This guide follows the Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO metropolitan statistical area. The two institutions report Denver and Lakewood, which are adjacent, so the metro reads as one city here rather than as a spread. Colorado Springs and Boulder are separate metropolitan areas and neither appears in this list.

Municipalities Included

  • Denver, CO
  • Lakewood, CO

Deliberately Not Included

  • Colorado Springs, CO The Colorado Springs metropolitan area, separately delineated about seventy miles south. The institution there is not in this list.
  • Boulder, CO Its own metropolitan area immediately northwest, and the University of Colorado campus there carries no accredited DNP in this dataset.
  • Aurora and Centennial, CO Named in the metro title and carrying no institution in the accredited dataset.

The Best 2 DNP Programs In Denver, Ranked

Every scored institution above, with what it publishes and what it does not.

Ranked 1 of 2

Colorado Christian University

Lakewood, CO

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

Colorado Christian is explicit that it is a Christian university and that the doctorate is built that way. The curriculum is framed around biblical truth alongside the national nursing competencies, and admission asks for a stated desire to do doctoral work in a Christ-centered community. Read that as information rather than marketing, because it shapes who is in the cohort. The leadership track for master’s holders runs 520 clinical hours and you complete them where you already live, rather than traveling to a placement the school picks. Courses come in 5, 10 and 15 week blocks with a one-day online orientation. One caveat comes before all of it: the program is online but open only to students in certain states, so check whether yours is one.

In-State Tuition
$27,631
Out-Of-State
$27,631
DNP Awards
20
UG Completion
64%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Colorado Christian University →

Ranked 2 of 2

Regis University

Denver, CO

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

Regis publishes the arithmetic that decides how long this takes, and it is unusually candid about it. You need 1,000 hours after the bachelor’s. A nurse arriving with a practitioner master’s typically enters with 600 of them already banked. A nurse arriving with a leadership, management or education master’s typically enters with 100 to 200. That is a gap of several hundred hours between two people who both hold a master’s, and it is the biggest single variable in what this degree costs you in time. Coursework runs 28 to 33 credits. The neonatal practitioner option adds a hard condition: two years of experience in a level III neonatal intensive care unit before you start.

In-State Tuition
$23,700
Out-Of-State
$23,700
DNP Awards
1
UG Completion
61%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Regis University →

Choosing A DNP Program In Denver

What studying in the Denver metro changes. The questions that apply wherever you study are on the national ranking page.

Colorado Christian University and Regis University are the whole of the field in Denver

Colorado Christian University and Regis University file their conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the credit total, the entry routes and the clinical hour requirement live on their own pages rather than in the federal columns this page ranks on. Ask them who arranges clinical placements, and take the licensure question to the Colorado board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The Denver Metro

Practice environment from AANP’s own state fact sheets, read 2026-09-08; AANP last revised the classification 05/2026. Boards from the NCSBN member directory, read 2026-09-08.

Colorado
Full Practice
Colorado Board of Nursing

Every institution on this page sits in Colorado, so one board licenses all of them and AANP classifies the jurisdiction as full practice. The school does not grant practice authority and never has; the license and the certification behind it do.

The board detail, the full AANP definition and the license verification route are on the state guide: DNP programs in Colorado . AANP is reading state statute rather than issuing a federal designation, and statutes move each legislative session, so confirm with the board before you rely on it.

Shortage Areas, And The Debt Relief Attached To Them

HRSA designated primary-care Health Professional Shortage Areas, read 2026-09-08. These are state counts, not metro ones.

Colorado, designated areas
121
Colorado, of those rural
79

These figures cover Colorado in full rather than the Denver metro specifically. HRSA publishes designations at the level of the individual area, and rolling them into a metro needs a county crosswalk this guide does not hold, so the state count is what is shown and it is shown as a state count. What follows from it still applies here, because eligibility never attached to a jurisdiction in the first place.

Both federal loan repayment routes open to advanced practice nurses require working at an approved site inside a designated area, and the area’s score sets funding priority when applications outrun the money: Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program and NHSC Loan Repayment Program. HPSA primary-care scores run 0-25; funding priority for loan repayment follows the score.

In a metro that is mostly urban the practical consequence is that eligible sites are a smaller share of the employers you are likely to interview with than the state count suggests, and they are usually federally qualified health centers, public hospital systems and university clinics rather than private practices. Whether a particular employer counts is settled by the program rather than by the designation, so check the site before you take the job.

HRSA’s shortage-area data portal maps the designations to the address. Paying for a DNP covers the routes that do not depend on where you practice, and the state guide breaks the designations down further: Colorado.

Studying From Outside The Denver Metro

Most of the measured field here is distance-flagged, 2 of 2 accredited doctorates in the Denver metro, so the question is less whether you can study at a distance and more whether an out-of-state program offers anything the local ones do not. Either way it turns on one thing this site cannot answer for you.

Authority to enroll a distance student is set per institution and per state, and the federal flag this page counts records delivery rather than permission, so only the school can answer it. Ask two things before tuition enters the conversation: whether the program can enroll a resident of the Denver metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Denver Option Fits Your Situation

Each of these routes to a published figure or a named institution. None is a recommendation, and none is a statement about whether a school will admit you.

If you hold a bachelor's: Colorado Christian University states that route

Colorado Christian University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Denver may take bachelor's entrants too: this site records a route only where the school states it, so an absent name means unread rather than closed.

If you already hold an advanced practice credential: Regis University

Regis University publishes a post-master's route, the shorter way in when your master's already carries supervised hours. Ask how many transfer; the ceilings differ sharply.

If you cannot relocate: 2 institutions here carry the distance flag

Colorado Christian University, Regis University carry it. The flag covers taught content only. Supervised hours still happen near you, and campus days are the school's to set, so ask for the count and the months.

If residency is out of reach: the private rate does not depend on it

A private institution charges one figure wherever you live, so without residency the comparison is against the out-of-state public rate. In Denver the cheapest published rate in the state belongs to one of its 2 private institutions.

What The Figures On This Page Are

Tuition is the institution’s published annual graduate rate, not a per-credit price and not a program total. Awards are conferrals in the reporting year. Completion is the federal undergraduate rate, the weakest input in the model, and no federal series reports DNP completion. Wages are the metropolitan cut of the federal survey, a different survey area from the state one. How this site scores programs sets out each input and its weight in full.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many DNP programs are there in Denver?

2 institutions in the Denver metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 2 municipalities.

What counts as the Denver metro on this page?

The Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Denver, CO; Lakewood, CO. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Denver than online?

Neither is reliably cheaper. Published in-state tuition at a public institution is usually the lowest figure available to someone who qualifies for it, and distance programs charge a single rate to everyone regardless of where they live. Which comes out lower depends entirely on whether you hold in-state status somewhere, so compare the published rates rather than the format.

Do these figures include fees and clinical costs?

No. Every tuition figure on this page is the published rate an institution reports to the federal government, which excludes fees, health insurance, textbooks and the travel a clinical placement can require. Treat it as a floor for comparison between institutions rather than a total cost of attendance.

Related Pages

Sources

  1. 1 CCNE Directory Of Accredited Programs Which institutions hold accreditation.
  2. 2 IPEDS Published tuition, conferrals and completion.
  3. 3 Metro Definition The Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO metropolitan statistical area, rolled up to the municipalities listed above. Institutions are matched on city and state.

Every federal figure on this site is read from the administering agency’s own page, never from a secondary aggregator, and the reading date is recorded beside it.

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